AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A two-day United States-Mexico border conference has just concluded in Austin.
Speakers included the governors of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff told participants, "As we approach the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, it is present in everybody's mind how critical it is that both countries protect their borders. Any guest-worker program that seeks to match American employers with foreign workers cannot succeed unless our borders are secured first."
Chertoff said that a temporary worker program for Mexican migrants is essential "for a significant majority of people, who come to the United States to do nothing more than earn a living for their families and be essentially members of their churches and good parents to their children."
The El Paso Times reported on Aug. 25 that Texas Governor Rick Perry said that tightening border security is his prime concern.
The Mexican governors of Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Baja California and Coahuila emphasized the need for an orderly flow of goods and people between the two nations.
Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs' general director of North American affairs, Juan Bosco Marti Ascensio, said, "More bridges and fewer walls are needed. We need to build more ports of entry and continue innovating to make them more efficient."
U.S. and Mexican governors of have been meeting annually since 1980 to discuss issues that affect all the states.
